The United States and Britain struck dozens of targets in Yemen on Saturday in response to repeated attacks on shipping by Iran-backed Huthi rebels that have disrupted global trade and put lives at risk, reports BSS.
The joint air raids in Yemen come a day after a separate wave of unilateral American strikes against Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria that were carried out in response to the killing of three US soldiers in Jordan on January 28.
It is the third time that British and American forces have jointly targeted the Huthis and the United States has also carried out a series of air raids against them on its own, but the rebels' attacks have persisted.
The latest strikes hit "36 Huthi targets across 13 locations in Yemen in response to the Huthis' continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea," the United States, Britain and other countries that provided support for the operation said in a statement.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes "are intended to further disrupt and degrade the capabilities of the Iranian-backed Huthi militia to conduct their reckless and destabilizing attacks."
"Coalition forces targeted 13 locations associated with the Huthis' deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, and radars," he said in a statement.
Neither Austin nor the joint statement identified the specific places that were hit, but the Huthis' Al-Massirah television said Sanaa and other locations were targeted.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
